Perkins regains ballot, but with eroded chances

Democrat Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins is back on the ballot, but his victory courtesy of a questionable court decision likely will be Pyrrhic.

The Louisiana Supreme Court narrowly reversed lower court decisions that disqualified Perkins from reelection. He made several errors when attesting to facts required to qualify, most egregiously not having registered to vote at the location where he had filed for a homestead exemption.

No matter, according to the Court’s majority with a remarkably obtuse, even disingenuous, decision that will draw future scrutiny. However, to the case at hand, it obviously impacts the mayoral contest, but more than that the process to get to where things stood a couple of weeks ago has affected negatively his chances.

Stewart claim explained by his political needs

When Democrat First District Attorney James Stewart termed his request to have Republican First District Judge Chris Victory recused from hearing a trial against a sheriff’s deputy as not retaliatory in nature, he was correct. Rather, that move was entirely political relating to Stewart’s electoral career.

Earlier this summer, Victory acquitted four Shreveport police officers on negligent homicide and malfeasance in office charges related to the death of Tommie McGlothen in 2020. McGlothen, who had a history of mental health issues, was detained forcibly by the officers and left unattended for nearly an hour when he expired.

That occurred just before national hysteria erupted about an alleged white police war on blacks, but hardly drew national attention, for while McGlothen was black, so are three of the officers involved. Nothing to see here, special interests keen on promoting the narrative and their media allies decided, so it received little coverage.

Questionable sweetheart deal considered by BC

If you thought a recent plan for Bossier City to pay for directing traffic around schools was questionable and convoluted, wait until you hear about this one.

In the City Council’s first meeting of the month, it took the first step towards spending over $25,000 to give to the Bossier Parish School Board to give to the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office to pay for traffic control on Bossier City streets around schools despite there being a whole police department available to perform that function. Fortunately, at its most recent meeting without explanation it withdrew that item from its agenda.

Yet this two-step didn’t seem nearly as complicated as to what would follow. Reviving an issue that first surfaced early in the year, the Council took the first step towards hiring on a contractual basis former deputy police chief Dale Teutsch at salary equating to $55,000 a year, to serve as liaison from the city’s Legal Department to its Police Department on issues related to staffing and organization consequent to civil service law. The ordinance went onto the back burner when ethics concerns were raised about the fact that Teutsch is city Chief Administrative Officer Amanda Nottingham’s father.

Law settled, LA can do more to deter abortion

Last week, the Louisiana Supreme Court put an end to debate over the constitutionality of the state’s abortion statute. That doesn’t mean more can’t be done to protect the unborn.

The several parts of statute that address regulation of the practice, tied together in Act 545 of 2022, make abortion illegal unless to save the life of the mother or other unborn child or that the unborn child hasn’t or couldn’t survive. Criminal penalties exist for people who physically intervene to perform abortions declared illegal.

However, the law doesn’t affect people and entities domiciled in Louisiana from aiding and abetting the performance of abortions illegal under state law if not in Louisiana. For example, some companies say they will pay for pregnant employees to travel out of states that make illegal abortions under their circumstances to have these, and other organizations say they will broker clients in one state to abortuaries in others.

More work needed to prevent child predation

While the Louisiana Legislature sleeps, the grooming of sexualized children stealthily continues that demands action to counter, a void into which Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley must step to address.

Brumley has criticized the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden Administration for trying to change program rules that would cut out a school’s students from participating in nutritional programs unless it capitulated to demands like having students use the bathroom of their chosen gender identity or compete in sports programs corresponding with their gender identity. Louisiana law just changed to prohibit biological males from competing in scholastic sports designated for biological females.

However, the Legislature let slip away an opportunity to pass a law similar to that in Florida that prevents the gender-identity-on-demand movement from crossing the line into outright political advocacy using children as pawns or, worse, as a tool to induce children into claiming a sexual identity to fulfill desires of adults. That Sunshine State law prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade and prohibits instruction that is not age appropriate for students and requires school districts to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being.

Boardwalk sale reminds of BC spending stupidity

If you want another reminder illustrating the futility of activist government pursuing a government-as-venture-capitalist model that robs taxpayer wealth, witness the recent sale of the Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City.

Last week it was announced that a buyer had closed on the property listed a few months ago, scooping up the 560,000-plus-sqaure foot outdoor mall for $30.5 million. Commencing operations in 2005, at that time Bossier City’s government hyped the opening, crowing about how if they built it, they would come from all over, pumping sales tax and property tax receipts into city coffers.

Even a cursory inspection of the facts casted doubt that the city’s development expenses to bring infrastructure to the builders – at a cost of $20 million, although part this went to the separate Bass Pro Shops that had opened a short time earlier – could produce subsequently tax revenues to justify it. The collection of mostly retailers with a few food service establishments and a theater would have to attract a lot of purchases that otherwise wouldn’t beggar other Bossier City retailers – principally the then quarter-century-old Pierre Bossier Mall – and kick off a spate of nearby development that did the same.